(by Francesco Gallo)The tenth edition of the Rome Film Festival will open on October 16 in a pared-down version without a competition section, jury or opening and closing ceremonies and with only the prize assigned by the audience, organisers said Tuesday.
The emphasis will be on quality, not quantity, the new artistic director Antonio Monda said.
The programme will run for nine days, one fewer than in previous editions, and will make do without the Sala Santa Cecilia at Rome's Music Auditorium, the venue for the event. However, the line-up includes important films such as 'Truth', the directorial debut of James Vanderbilt, on the controversy surrounding a 2004 CBS news report that used unverifiable documentation to allege then President Bush relied on preferential treatment to avoid fighting in the Vietnam War; and The Walk, a biopic directed by Robert Zemeckis based on the story of French high-wire artist Philippe Petit and his walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in August 1974. Films by Italian directors Claudio Cupellini, Gabriele Mainetti, Sergio Rubini, Paolo Sorrentino and Gianni Amelio are also set to premiere at the festival. In total 37 films will be presented in a single section .
In addition, festival goers will be able to take part in 'close encounters' with actors, directors, screenwriters and other personalities including Jude Law, Wes Anderson and Donna Tartt, William Friedkin and Dario Argento, Joel Coen and Frances McDormand, Sorrentino, Todd Haynes, Carlo Verdone and Paola Cortellesi, Renzo Piano and Riccardo Muti and Paolo Villaggio. Late Italian actress Virna Lisi is the icon of this edition and gives her name to a prize to be awarded to the best Italian actress of the year on November 8. There will also be retrospectives dedicated to Antonio Petrangeli, Stefania Sandrelli and Pablo Larrain and to computer animation studio Pixar. The films have been chosen particularly for their capacity to generate an emotional response, Monda explained. He said it would be "hypocritical" to deny the difficulties involved in putting the festival together given the time and budget restrictions and the unavailability of the Sala Santa Cecilia, which will have a negative impact on audience figures. However, he said he had made Winston Churchill's saying on pessimism and optimism his own.
"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty," Monda quoted.
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